Alliances
by JHathaway
Summary: Life has certainly been interesting for Aro Volturi since he revealed the secret of vampire existence to the galaxy and signed the treaty with the Federation. Now, stranded 75,000 light-years from Earth by a powerful alien force, he and his coven must join forces with the crew of the starship Voyager to survive, and return home...Twilight/Star Trek: Voyager cross-over AU.
1. Old Friends and New

_I do not own Twilight or Star Trek and have no intention of profiting from this story.  
_

* * *

B'Elanna was alone when she woke up in the prison cell, but her relief that her captors' brutal interrogation had ended was short-lived. She groaned, pushing fingers over her bruised, ridged forehead and through her short hair. Still in one piece, but who knew for how long.

Part of her was afraid and the other part disappointed. They hadn't come back for her. Her fellow rebels had escaped the ambush, but apparently no one had returned to see what had become of their crew member. Now she would die in a prison of the Cardassian Empire. After the interrogators had finished extracting all the information they could from her, that was. The regular guards had failed to break her resolve. Soon they would bring in the Obsidian Order.

And then nothing could save her.

The sounds of straining metal at the cell door made her jump to her feet. She watched in disbelief as the door buckled slowly and then crumpled entirely, like a broken leaf. B'Elanna had only a moment to get a sense of the two figures that stood in the doorway. They were dressed in the motley leathers and homespun of Maquis rebels but she didn't know them by sight and their faces were obscured by low hoods.

"Who..?" she began, but the shorter one hushed her quickly. The larger one was by her side in an instant, moving faster than any human possibly could. She gasped in surprise when he picked her up, holding her securely as though she weighed nothing. The world turned into a blurred streak. Her rescuers must be running, but it felt more like flying. Her skin was cold where it was pressed up against the one carrying her.

It occurred to her then that her rescuers were vampires. The speed and coldness were the same as Stefan and Vladimir. She shuddered involuntarily, replicated blood drinking or not, she was still creeped out every time she saw the pair. It certainly hadn't been her choice to invite them onboard the ship, but Chakotay had jumped at their offer of help in the Maquis rebellion against the Cardassian Empire and he was the captain, and her mentor, and her former professor at Starfleet Academy, so she had swallowed her objections.

They came to an abrupt stop and she saw the shorter one was using what looked like a small force field disruptor, but not of a kind she had encountered before. He tapped a communicator device.

"Now." His voice was surprisingly deep and vibrated in the hollow corridor. Then everything dissolved into dust as a transporter beam was activated.

When the dust resolved back into stable reality, they were in a small cabin paneled in a coppery metal. B'Elanna wasn't sure of the room's use, the panels might be control screens or hide storage areas, but she was sure they were now on a starship, a certainty confirmed a moment later by the familiar tingling sensation of a warp drive initiating. They were in space and moving fast.

B'Elanna turned to her rescuers, they were pulling back their hoods, revealing pale skin and red eyes. She shivered. "So you're friends of Stefan and Vladimir?" she asked, sounding tougher than she felt. Despite their clothing, she was now certain that they weren't Maquis. Her escape was looking more and more like a kidnapping.

"Oh very _old_ friends," said a soft, full voice behind her. She spun, staring in shock at the man who had just entered the cabin. "I hope you will be able to give us news of them, my dear, we have been so anxious since their departure from Earth." B'Elanna's insides lurched unpleasantly. His large, terrible, dark red eyes and beautiful face were framed by a wealth of long black hair, and accentuated by his sleek black and red uniform. He smiled at her warmly, broadly, enthusiastically, gleefully as he advanced.

_Start screaming_, whispered B'Elanna's instincts. _Start running_.

The Vampire species had kept a discreetly low profile since the revelation of their existence and the treaty with the Federation, but every schoolchild knew Aro of the Volturi. The vampire who had broken the secret of his species to the galaxy after protecting it for so many centuries, who had brokered the treaty with the Federation, ensuring peaceful co-existence and securing amnesty for past crimes with the promise of non-interference and future good behavior. Genial, dangerous Aro, with his frightening mental ability that surpassed even the telepathic skills of the Vulcans.

B'Elanna had a very good idea of what would come next, the skills of the Obsidian Order were nothing to how effectively her mind was about to be stripped. She lunged away, looking wildly for an exit, but her rescuers seized her arms and held her firmly. Her temper flared, heat rushing to her head, and she struggled with angry frustration, trying to break their iron grip.

"Shhhh, shhh," Aro soothed, coming close, too close, with a gentle, outstretched hand. "Be calm, my dear, or you'll injure yourself."

B'Elanna jerked back, straining her head away from him, as his cool fingertips met her cheek with gentle inevitability.

"We mean you no harm, B'Elanna," he whispered, leaning close. "I promise this won't hurt at all. You'll never even know it happened." His hands cupped her face gently, pulling her head forward. She grimaced, shutting her eyes, expecting the harsh intrusion of a Vulcan mind meld. But there was nothing. Just the cold, soft, embrace of his hands and his dark head bowed in concentration, their foreheads almost touching.

After a few moments he released her. "Fascinating," he breathed, brushing the backs of his fingers briefly over her cheek. "How very helpful you are, my dear."

"You bastard!" she snarled, straining forward now, reckless with guilt. "You've made me betray my friends! You're no better than those spoonhead scum!"

"Not at all, your friends are perfectly safe from us. _I_ certainly won't betray them."

"Then why...?"

"It's not them we're interested in. Just in dear Stefan and Vladimir. They're so _very_ old, you see, going a bit senile now, dreaming of their lost youth."

B'Elanna hesitated, she wasn't particularly fond of the two Romanian vampires, but Chakotay had told her they were fighting for the same thing as the Maquis, to regain the homeland that had been wrongfully taken from them.

"You took away their land." The injustice of the concept made her anger flare up again, but not as bright as before. Aro's almost affectionate expression seemed to be having a numbing effect on her.

He chuckled. "Once upon a time, long long ago, they led an empire that ruled my world, until my family and I deposed them. I don't deny this. But my dear child, that was thousands of years ago and nothing will bring back what they had. They're not fighting for justice, they're fighting for a second chance at dominion, at your friends' expense, I'm sorry to say."

He came close again, his head tilted inquiringly. "Do you really think they'll just let the Maquis rule themselves in their quaint little colonies, when the victory has been seized from the Cardassian Empire? If Stefan and Vladimir regain their thrones, who do you think will be their first _loyal_ subjects."

B'Elanna was quiet. Aro had a reputation as a skilled manipulator but in this instance, she knew he was right. Chakotay was so eager for powerful allies, he hadn't stopped to think what the ancient pair might want for themselves, just so long as the next skirmish with the Cardassians could be won, and the next, and the next.

Aro waved his hand casually and the other two released her. B'Elanna rubbed at her arms, he was right, she had hurt herself, on top of what she had endured during her _first_ interrogation.

He tutted, again the light brush of his fingertips on her face. "You're injured, luckily we have a skilled doctor on board."

"What are you going to do with me now?" Her voice sounded resentful without her meaning to, but she still felt defensive. After all, he had just read every thought she had ever had. He knew more about her than any other person alive or dead, and she didn't know whether she should hate him for it or not.

"We'll keep you on board until we retrieve our friends, then you'll be free to rejoin yours. We'll even make sure you reach them safely. Or..." he looked at her hopefully. "You could stay on with us."

"As what, a _pet_?"

"Very amusing, actually I was going to say Chief Engineer."

B'Elanna actually stuttered. Then she laughed. "You have got to be kidding me."

"Nothing could be further from the truth. You _are_ extraordinary, you know, very unusual."

She rolled her eyes. "I know, I know, half Klingon, half Human, quite the freak."

"No, not the hybridity, although that _is_ interesting. I meant your mind, you can do things with it that even we, with all our extra room, would have trouble with. Your Academy professors saw it too, you know, even if they were foolish enough to let you quit Starfleet."

"You'd trust me with your ship? How do you know I wouldn't sabotage it and blast you all out an airlock?" She started to wonder if he was insane. There were rumors.

Aro smiled indulgently. "You forget how intimately I know you now, B'Elanna Torres. I would trust you with my immortal life." He patted her shoulder. "Just think about it." He looked at her smugly, then appraisingly, then gleefully again, and turned.

"Felix, Demetri, you'd better prepare some living quarters, and ask Dr. Cullen to see her immediately if he would be so kind." He grinned at B'Elanna and strolled out of the cabin.

B'Elanna stared at the doors as they slid shut behind him. "Tell me," she asked, "do you ever get used to him?"

"No," said the large vampire.

"Not in a million years," said the shorter one.

* * *

Aro's genial expression faded as he made his way back to the bridge. He was somber by the time he entered and took his seat in the ornate, straight backed captain's chair.

He settled in, laying his hands carefully on the armrests. His crew kept their attention on their respective stations, but it was clear from their tense posture that they were waiting for him to speak. When he did, his voice was calm, and quietly authoritative.

"Irina, hail the _Volterra_."

"Aye, Master." The blond vampire at the communications station bowed her head, her fingers flying over her touchscreen controls.

A moment later the main screen changed from a view of the starfield streaming around them to the bridge of the Volturi flagship. "Brothers, sister," Aro greeted the vampires seated in the three command chairs.

"Aro, I take it you have gained the intelligence you wanted." His brother Marcus's deep voice rasped pleasantly.

"Yes, we've located them now, they're on the ship commanded by the human known as Chakotay."

His sister Didyme smiled, "the cute one."

Aro chuckled, "yes, the cute one."

"We have their last location, much good it will do us" his brother Caius cut in tersely. "They disappeared in the Badlands yesterday."

"Disappeared? How?"

"They were being pursued by a Cardassian battleship," said Marcus, "Chakotay has a great deal of experience in the Badlands, most likely he thought he could throw them off there."

"And now they're gone." Caius glared at his handheld view screen, as though trying to intimidate it into giving him more favorable information.

"The ship could still be hiding out there," Didyme offered helpfully, "if he knows the territory so well. The Federation believes so. They're sending a Starfleet ship called the _Voyager_ to try to find them."

Caius sneered. He had a low opinion of the Federation. Aro smiled at him fondly. Underneath the white hot fury of his temper, Caius hid a vulnerability that always made Aro want to take him into his arms and cuddle him, an indignity that Caius did on occasion submit to - provided there were no witnesses.

Marcus inclined his head. "I'm concerned about the Federation locating our friends before we do. The Federation may regard the Maquis as criminals, but Stefan and Vladimir could still find allies when they're captured. There are some in the Federation who would welcome their help just as much as the Maquis, and some among the Cardassian Empire as well. And that is the more dangerous possibility, Aro. If Stefan and Vladimir decide to throw their lot in with the Empire instead of their current allies, the results could be catastrophic on a grand scale. There are Cardassian leaders with no ties of loyalty to their own people, who would see the galaxy burn just achieve their own supremacy."

Aro sighed, his hands clasped as though in prayer - his expression of resolution. "Then I must go to the Badlands, and find our friends before it's too late."

"Don't think about bringing them back anymore, at least not in one piece." said Caius, He smiled in a manner that could not be called anything but evil.

Didyme shifted uncomfortably, her hand strayed to her husband's arm.

"We agreed to do this as humanely as possible," Marcus reminded his brother.

"Don't you mean _humanly_?" Caius mocked.

Aro raised his hand and they quieted.

"I will do what needs to be done when the time comes." His voice was soft, deadly.

"Then until we meet again, all our wishes go with you." Marcus inclined his head. Didyme smiled warmly. Caius nodded.

Aro smiled lovingly at them, "My dear ones, until we meet again."

The transmission ended, he faced the endless star field once more.


	2. Ships in the Night

"It's beautiful," Aro murmured, awestruck. Standing on the deck of the _Didyme_ and watching the flickering lights of the Badlands' plasma storms and funnel clouds on the view screen, he looked like someone who has reached a peak overlooking the sea and now for the first time sees the water stretching out endlessly to the horizon.

Beside him, Demetri worked at his station with an almost desperate concentration.

"I prefer beauty that won't rip starships apart," said Jane, coming to stand next to Aro. The little vampire frowned at the screen. Everything here was so _intense_, and so beyond her control.

"I know, dear child, you prefer beauty you can rip apart." Aro pulled her to him and kissed the top of her blond head. Jane squeezed her eyes shut like a contented cat.

"I prefer something we can get at, without all this _space_ in between" said Alec, coming to lean against Aro's other arm.

"Poor children," Aro sighed affectionately, brushing Alec's hair the wrong way and then smoothing it down, "you'll get your chance soon, after Demetri has done his work." He leaned over Demetri, their faces close, and brushed his cheek gently with his lips to read his thoughts.

"It's not clear..." began Demetri, without looking up.

"Shhh," Aro hushed him.

As though this had been a general command, there was silence on the bridge. The light from the view screen flickered on their skin, touching off little sparks of refracted color. Aro held the twins close, watching Demetri's hands fly over the control panel, and then pause...

"I have them," he said, a note of smug satisfaction in his voice.

The view of the Badlands was replaced by a map of that area of space. A thin line snaked across it, ending in a pulsing dot. The trail the Maquis ship had left when it evaded its Cardassian pursuers and sought refuge in the Badlands' fierce storms.

"Well done, Demetri" said Aro, triumph surging in his voice.

"Master," Irina's clear voice cut through his exaltation, "a ship has just come out of warp."

"Identify it." Aro took his seat in the captain's chair, flanked by the twins.

"It's the _Voyager_, Master, they're hailing us."

Aro clasped his hands and smiled quietly, he looked both exuberantly welcoming and eerily threatening. "Put them on the screen."

The view screen changed to display the bridge of the _Voyager_, and Captain Janeway's authoritative, queen-like face.

"Captain, what a pleasant surprise," Aro tilted his head inquiringly. "How may I assist you?"

"I was just about to ask you the same thing. Aro of the Volturi." Her throaty voice was exaggeratedly warm and friendly.

Aro tilted his head in the other direction, like a hawk considering its prey. Captain Janeway smiled, in almost the same manner.

* * *

B'Elanna wasn't used to being bored. She had paced her tiny cabin until she felt like she was going to go insane.

"What?!" she snapped, when the door buzzed.

It slid open, revealing a golden-haired vampire who peered at her cautiously, as though afraid she might bite.

"How are you feeling?"

"Just fine, Dr. Cullen, when will I be discharged?" she said sarcastically.

Carlisle Cullen smiled disarmingly. "Not long now." He stepped forward and ran a medical tricorder up and down in front of her. "Very good, your injuries have completely healed now."

B'Elanna resumed pacing. "So tell me, what's a vampire doing treating humans? Isn't that some kind of contradiction or something?"

"I've, ah, always taken a different path than most of my species. I was training to be a doctor before I changed, I didn't see why I should stop after."

"What about...?"

"All the blood? Lots and lots of practice."

"Wish I had that kind of patience," B'Elanna said truthfully.

"Dr. Cullen, please report to the bridge." Irina's voice crackled through the cabin, making B'Elanna jump.

"And bring the little rebel with you," Aro's soft voice added.

Carlisle looked curiously at B'Elanna's face as she reacted to the last command. He thought she looked...pleased.

It only took a few moments to reach the bridge from B'Elanna's cabin. Her concept of the size of the Volturi ship has shrunk in her mind since she had come on board. What she had assumed was a galaxy class starship was really just a glorified shuttlecraft, sleek and lean, optimized for speed and efficiency, with the bridge and the engine taking up most of the room.

Just as they entered the bridge, the ship jolted and almost seemed to buckle. B'Elanna grabbed onto Carlisle for support as he didn't seem affected by the motion of the ship. He was so attractive that B'Elanna felt a little reluctant to let go again as the ship regained its equilibrium, until she saw that Aro was watching her with an amused smile.

"So good of you both to join us," Aro motioned them to come forward to the captain's chair. B'Elanna felt suddenly shy, getting this close to him again. It was hard not to think about everything he knew about her, small things that were petty or demeaning or just plain embarrassing. Plus he kept looking at her with far too much interest.

She was distracted by the view screen. The Badlands were beautiful from a distance but terrifying from inside, like a vision of hell. The ship was moving fast, darting between funnel clouds that appeared around them in erratic formations. She wondered which of the vampires on the bridge was the navigator, there were a surprising number of crew members for such a small ship, all bent over panel configurations that were completely unfamiliar to her.

"We've located Chakotay's ship," Aro said, "he's hidden it well but there was a faint trail from the engines. We're following it now."

"Oh." She was surprised at how disappointed she felt. A few days ago she wanted nothing more than to be back with Chakotay and her fellow Maquis. And now...?

Aro smiled to himself, resisting the urge to reach out and take her hand, to know exactly what was going on in her mind.

"Perhaps you'd like to see who's joined us." Aro gestured and the screen changed to a view of the area of space behind the _Didyme_.

B'Elanna gasped. "The Federation!" She wheeled on Aro, her voice hard, nearly a snarl. "You said you wouldn't betray them!"

Aro regarded her calmly. "And I haven't."

"Then what is a Federation starship doing on our tail?" She pointed angrily at the screen.

"That is a gift from one of your own, a Mr. Tuvok I believe."

"What?" B'Elanna thought of the somber, intense Vulcan who had joined Chakotay's crew the year before. Not a really firm believer, but he'd always seemed dedicated, and boring.

"A Federation spy, I'm afraid. Apparently he's been feeding them information the whole time, but now they feel he's in too much danger and want to retrieve him."

"So you just let them follow your ship?"

"I didn't have a choice," Aro sighed philosophically. "According to the terms of the treaty, I'm not supposed to get in the way of Federation business. On the other hand they're not supposed to interfere with us either, so Captain Janeway has agreed to let us collect Stefan and Vladimir in our own way."

Carlisle looked at him a little sadly. "Do you mean to go through with it now?"

Aro reached out and fingered the cloth of the doctor's sleeve. "I'll at least have to immobilize them, dear Carlisle. Then we'll see."

Carlisle nodded, his beautiful face assuming a neutral expression that obscured any real emotion he was feeling.

B'Elanna folded her arms nervously. The view screen had returned to the path ahead and she searched the stormy scene, waiting for the first glimpse of her old ship.

"I'm afraid returning you to your friends is no longer an option, B'Elanna, unless you want to follow Chakotay to a Federation prison. I understand they're very comfortable."

She couldn't tell whether he was serious or not. She shook her head, "I'm a rebel, not insane."

Aro grinned. "That remains to be seen. My offer is still on the table, by the way. Or we could drop you off at another Maquis hideout."

B'Elanna opened her mouth to answer, but everything went sideways before she could speak. A terrible force seemed to have seized the ship, flinging it through space and time. She was on the floor before she knew what was happening, the taste of blood in her mouth. A roaring sound, like high wind in a storm, filled the air. No one screamed or cried out. Something was holding her in place, shielding her from the debris that filled the air.

Fire split the ship, the pull of open space tugged at her body, and still she was immobilized. There was screaming now, then cut off horribly short. Someone shouted, something about sealing a breach. The drag of escaping atmosphere stopped. And then everything was quiet, except for the sparking of shattered control panels.

It was only then that B'Elanna realized she was being held down and covered by Aro, his long hair around her face where she was pressed up against his chest. It was strange, she couldn't hear his heart beating, but he was breathing raggedly. "I'm alright," she said unnecessarily. He pulled back a little and squinted at her. There was an intensity of emotion in his face that was difficult for B'Elanna to understand. Their faces were too close together, and she felt for a moment as though they had come to the end of the Universe and of time itself.


	3. Forces Unknown

_Warning: contains character death and somewhat disturbing images._

* * *

Aro could tell who had survived by who was still moving. It was the negative that confounded him. The ones who had been standing in the path of the hull breach had been shattered into pieces. His mind tried and failed to picture them. Grief kept breaking his synapses and forcing him to start over.

The bridge was only dimly lit now, and the other survivors were mostly dark blurs of motion.

Heidi and Gianna crouched by the viewscreen, which had gone black and silent, pulling off sections of the wall and unpacking tool cases.

Demetri, his face smudged from the oily smoke of the breach, patched wires on his station and brushed at the splintered surface as the control panel flickered back into life. He kept looking over at Felix who was reinforcing the seal on the hull breach with his right arm under his left.

Carlisle was kneeling among the fallen crew members, carefully lifting up shards of body parts and placing them in a storage container.

Chelsea.

Afton.

Alec.

Jane.

"I need a status report." Aro's voice faltered. He felt a warm hand on his shoulder and turned his head to see B'Elanna looking at him. Her face was so full of sympathy that she seemed to be reading his own mind. She opened her mouth to speak and couldn't. Carefully, as though she might shatter too, he touched his fingertips to her cheek. Incoherent emotions greeted him and he saw himself as she did, hurt and uncertain. This more than anything brought him back to the present moment. He slid her hand off his shoulder and interlaced his fingers with hers before turning back to his crew.

"Report!" His voice deepened, demanding attention.

Irina tapped cautiously at her panel, it was still sparking and looked as though it could explode at any moment. "The engine is offline, Master. The computer registered a scan before we were hit, a kind of coherent tetryon beam."

"What hit us?" Aro asked quietly. His thumb caressed B'Elanna's hand, listening as her own mind ran through possibilities. She had a charming tendency to blame everything on Cardassians first and only then begin to work through more realistic possibilities.

_We were moved._

"A displacement wave," said Irina. "A polarized magnetic variation."

_We were moved a large distance. Why use a displacement wave if the distance was short? _

Aro and B'Elanna looked at each other in silent communication.

_Whoever did this wanted us. Wanted us gone? Wanted us somewhere else?_

"Demetri, where are we?" Aro's voice was very quiet now.

"Master," Demetri began, "our position is...no...it can't be."

"Demetri..."

"According to the sensors, we're over 70,000 light years from our previous position."

Aro paused, despite embracing space travel, he had never been able to fully trust technology.

"Is something broken?" he asked carefully.

"No, Master, the computer is undamaged."

The viewscreen blinked and displayed an image of their surroundings.

Aro stepped forward, staring. Gradually everyone else came to a halt and did the same.

A massive array was suspended in space before the_ Didyme_, like a monstrous metal snowflake. Its only sign of life was a continuous pulse of energy, streaming off to some unknown target.

Carlisle came to stand next to Aro. "Did it bring us here? Some kind of transportation device?"

Aro's large, expressive eyes seemed to flare brighter. "Whoever controls it will answer to us." The tone of his voice was deadly.

B'Elanna's emotions ran cold with sudden fear. The fear of a trapped animal before it bares its teeth to fight. Aro tightened his grasp on her hand and she quieted a little.

"Master. _Voyager_ is still with us. They've taken some heavy damage."

Aro wheeled on Irina, "Hail them."

The viewscreen snapped to the deck of the Federation ship. Small fires punctuated the dark glow of the bridge. Several crew members were running around with fire extinguishers while others helped scorched companions out of the wreckage of their stations. Captain Janeway's expression was somewhere between shock and determination, her carefully piled hair fell haphazardly over her shoulders.

"Captain Janeway, I'm afraid we find ourselves in the same difficult situation."

"So it would appear. I don't suppose you know what happened either?"

"We're still trying to figure that one out." Aro's attention was caught by a touch on his hand from Carlisle. A request.

"Do you have many casualties, Captain?"

"Yes." She glanced down at the body of her first officer and winced. "Our medical team, unfortunately, didn't survive."

"Our ship's doctor has experience with human patients, may I transport him over?"

Janeway smiled tiredly. "Since it seems we're going to have to help each other a little longer...yes, thank you."

* * *

The scene in Sick Bay was chaotic, illuminated by flickering lights. Only the sounds of their heartbeats distinguished the worst of the burn victims from those with fatal injuries. Others limped in supporting their more badly hurt colleagues and were eager to be released so they could return to their duties.

Carlisle worked quickly and effectively. His own calm disposition and many years of experience as a doctor during wartime in various countries and various disputes enabled him to remain unaffected by the confusion around him. A young human ensign with dark hair and a slightly shell-shocked expression, sent by Janeway as the only available assistant, was eager to help, although he kept handing Carlisle the wrong equipment.

"What's your name, Ensign?" Carlisle asked when the most urgent inquiries had been treated. He was examining a Betazoid lieutenant with superficial burns on her hands and face. Her solid black eyes were full of pain.

"Harry, Harry Kim." He handed Carlisle the right injector this time, trying to learn quickly.

"You'll be fine in a moment," Carlisle reassured his patient, running a dermal regenerator over her skin. "Just relax."

She grabbed at Harry's sleeve, "Is he dead?" she asked desperately.

"Sorry, yeah." He looked extremely upset.

"He saved my life." The woman began to cry. Carlisle realized she was drawing her grief through an empathetic connection to Harry, her pain making her vulnerable to the feelings of others. He carefully drew the young man out of the way, leaving the Betazoid in peace.

"Who was he?" he asked Harry quietly.

"My friend Tom," said Harry sadly, "I haven't known him long, he was just supposed to be an observer on the mission. He pulled Lt. Stadi away from her station when it exploded."

Carlisle patted his shoulder sympathetically and at that moment Harry flickered and vanished. Startled, Carlisle looked quickly around Sick Bay, the rest of his patients were vanishing as well.

"Sick Bay to Bridge!" There was no response. He pulled out his own communicator. "Carlisle to the _Didyme_."

"Go ahead Carlisle," Aro's voice responded.

"Scan the Voyager, is there anyone besides me aboard?"

There was a pause and then Demetri's voice, "They're all gone. There are transporter signal traces on all decks."

"Get him out of there!" commanded Aro, sounding panicked. And then in a desperate shout, "B'Elanna!"

* * *

"They're all on the array." Demetri's voice was flat. "Both ships were scanned and then everyone who wasn't a vampire was transported, right through the shields."

Aro traced his fingers over the younger vampire's wrist and read the fear he was suppressing. He turned to the crew, catching their attention with a silent look.

"My dear ones," his soft voice wrapped itself around them comfortingly, " for all our long years we have been immortal, god-like, in comparison to the humans we used and dominated. Now that we have joined the rest of the galaxy, it's natural that we should find species that have greater abilities than us, that can hold us in the same contempt. It's terrifying, I know, but remember that it is natural, and we have always learned to work within the natural order." He paused and tilted his head to one side, as though weighing their comprehension. "Remember that we have also learned to bend the natural order to our own purposes." He folded his hands carefully. His crew bowed their heads slightly, in acknowledgement and understanding.

"Demetri, can we transport to the array?"

"Yes, Master, its shields are not modulated to protect against transporter beams."

Irina frowned. "Why would something so powerful leave itself unprotected like that?"

Felix shrugged his good shoulder, "maybe because whoever controls it doesn't expect anyone else in this sector to have transporter technology."

"Then let's take them by surprise," said Aro softly. "Heidi, please accompany me."

Carlisle stepped forward. "I'd like to come too, some of my patients were in the middle of treatment when they were transported."

Aro nodded, and gestured to Gianna. She flicked quick fingers over her control panel. Aro closed his eyes as the process started, a nervous habit that he had never been able to break.

When he opened his eyes, he widened them in surprise. A rural American farm surrounded them, circa the 1950s, perhaps 60s. It was obviously fake, besides its improbable occurrence, it was far too clean.

"What am I looking at, Heidi?"

"We're definitely in the array, Master, but there's a holographic skin over everything."

Aro sniffed the air, breathing in the scent of sun-warmed grass. He smiled at the others. "This is not meant for our benefit. It's programmed for a human audience."

Carlisle and Heidi looked at him questioningly and he lifted his hand in the air, raising an eyebrow. "Notice anything?"

Carlisle nodded. "Of course, our skin isn't reflecting the light."

"Aro?!"

Aro whipped around, B'Elanna was coming through the trees by the farmhouse, cautious at first and then running. He met her halfway, catching her by the shoulders and looking anxiously into her face. "B'Elanna, are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, the other crew, they were all here and then the people from the farm just grabbed them and dragged them into the barn there." She pointed to a building just behind them and then gasped in surprise.

"What is it?"

For an instant B'Elanna stared back at him and then it was as if she were snatched away into thin air. Aro heard a strangled cry of sickening pain and then there was silence.

The holographic farm shuddered and blinked out. The three vampires were left standing at the entrance to a long corridor of gleaming metal and glowing blue light. Along each side, the crew of the _Voyager_ were suspended on narrow platforms. They lay on their backs, naked except for a light covering, their arms hanging down. A metal rod impaled each one through the chest.

They walked forward slowly. Heidi looked sadly at the lines of platforms. Aro reached out and stroked her hand, she was thinking uncomfortably of slaughterhouses, and then inevitably of how she used to lead humans into Volturi Castle on feeding days before the treaty, urging them to stay in line.

"What is this, Carlisle?" Aro's voice was tight with disgust.

"The rods are providing a paralytic," said Carlisle, consulting his medical tricorder. "There are other processes at work but I don't understand them."

They moved down the corridor, past the identically arranged crew members until they reached the end. The last of the prone figures was B'Elanna, her body still shuddering from the entry of the paralytic.

Aro touched her forehead gently, hearing nothing but unconscious murmuring. When he looked up, his expression was dark with anger.

"Who are you?" he asked quietly, speaking to the silent array around them, "and what have you done?"


	4. Up the Infinite Stairs

The array was extensive but it wasn't long before they located the only other life form on the ship. A wide, open control room, shimmering in blue and white, lay just outside the corridor, approximately where the holographic farmhouse had stood. A large amorphous creature hovered before them in the center of the room, looking somewhat like a jellyfish made out of light.

Then the creature wasn't there at all and instead an old man, dressed in rustic clothing of the same time period as the farmhouse, sat before them on a wooden bench, strumming a banjo.

Aro blinked.

"Hologram," whispered Heidi.

The old man glared at them. Aro assumed his most reassuring smile and stepped forward. "May we speak with you?"

"Oh go away," the man said wearily, "you're no good to me. You're not even alive!"

"We're immortal, we don't experience life quite the same as you do."

"You don't have what I need!"

Aro gestured in the direction of the corridor. "Do they have what you need?"

"Perhaps...the scans looked right, but I need to test them."

Aro's expression became predatory. "We need them. We have responsibility for those people and we're going to take them back with us."

"No! You can't have them! I don't have time to find others!" The old man scowled viciously at Aro.

Carlisle reached out and touched Aro's hand.

_It's dying. _

Aro looked at the tricorder Carlisle was holding up to him, then turned back to the old man.

"What do you need them for?"

"Go away."

"What are you looking for?"

"You wouldn't understand, I don't have time for this, _and you're dead_."

Aro held out his hand and turned it over, palm up. "You'd be surprised, how much I can understand. I can read thoughts through contact. If you let me do this with you, I'll understand why you needed these people."

The old man hesitated, his lips trembled and he blinked watery eyes at Aro's hand. Aro smiled encouragingly, tilting his head to one side.

"So alone..." The old man faltered, gazing at the floor.

"It's always good to confide in someone."

"There are some debts that cannot be repaid..."

"Tell me."

The hologram flickered out and the large jellyfish entity floated before them again. Aro took this as a sign of agreement.

"Aro, be careful, you don't even know if your talent works on this species," whispered Carlisle, "It could harm you."

Aro nodded and moved carefully, reaching out until his open hand met the glistening surface of the being. His skin tingled for a moment and then he gasped in surprise as the thing's mind opened to him. Carlisle started forward but Aro waved him away. He exhaled in ecstasy, tilting his head back, looking upward. "I can see..."

_Everything_.

_Cold stars, fire at their hearts, and dark space between them._

_The Universe stretching in all directions._

_The dust of time._

_A young species climbs up to reach the stars, but the stars are infinite._

_When everything is ancient, there is much to learn._

_Scorching obliteration, white hot._

_A man kneels before the wheeling constellations, within the stars themselves._

_Some debts cannot be repaid._

Aro lowered his head, his expression falling into dismay.

_No._

_No._

_No._

He opened his eyes, confused for a moment by the angle of his neck. Then he realized he was lying on the floor, being cradled by Carlisle. Heidi was watching the entity, tricorder held out as if warding it off.

"What happened?"

"You passed out," said Carlisle, looking anxious. "I've never seen a vampire lose consciousness before."

"Strange things happen in space," Aro shivered. "I'm cold," he said incredulously. He pressed closer to Carlisle, who seemed much warmer than usual.

Carlisle consulted his tricorder. "The being affected your skin, there was some kind of cellular interaction, but the effect is fading now."

Aro reached up and touched Carlisle's face, seeing himself make contact with the being and then stumble away before falling to the floor.

"What did you see?"

Aro caressed Carlisle's familiar features. "I saw too much." He allowed the doctor to help him to his feet, and stood a little unsteadily, Heidi coming to take his other arm. After a few moments he patted them reassuringly and walked slowly back towards the being. It was floating in the same place but the translucent color of its surface was changing, as though turning in on itself.

"They were explorers," said Aro, wonderingly, and reached out his hand as if to touch it again, then drew it back. He turned towards the others. "Its species discovered space travel and then warp speed. From there it was a small step to study other worlds. They found an M-class planet not far from here and began experiments to study the planet's atmosphere, but they weren't careful and the atmospheric nucleogenics were destroyed, the planet couldn't produce moisture any longer."

Aro winced before continuing. The collective emotions of the species still weighed on him. "It was only then that they thought to look at the planet's inhabitants, a bipedal species that called itself the Ocampa. Very pretty, very kind, some undeveloped telepathic abilities, a nice civilization, but fragile, their lifespan is only three years."

"There are some debts that cannot be repaid," quoted Carlisle.

"Exactly. The explorers were filled with guilt and a decision was made. They constructed an extensive and beautiful underground city for the Ocampa and created this array to provide a power source. That's the stream of energy we've been seeing leaving the array. Two of the species, a mated pair, were chosen to remain in the array as caretakers. Over time the array has also become a defense for the Ocampa after the Kazan, a warrior species in this sector, settled on the planet's surface. That's the short version, I saw more but it's not relevant right now"

"What happened to the other one?" asked Carlisle. "We're only reading one of them on the array."

Aro looked over his shoulder at the entity. "Its mate abandoned it, it's alone now. There were supposed to be offspring, to continue repaying the debt. It is making a race against time now, to reproduce before it dies. But without another member of its species, it has had to find other means of procreation."

Carlisle frowned, "The crewmembers...now I understand something about the processes in the corridor..."

"It's been using the array to search for the right biological combinations," said Aro quietly. "Scanning species across the galaxy wasn't what the array was designed for, so there have been problems, casualties. This has been going on for some time."

Carlisle shuddered.

Aro turned to the entity. "You have overstepped yourself, Caretaker. In searching for a means of continuing to protect the Ocampa, you have threatened the well being of other species."

"There's no time left." They heard the words in their minds in a voice that was not a voice.

"You are incurring more debts, for the people you have brought here, and for those you killed in the process."

"No time!" the voice that was not a voice screamed in their minds. Aro shut his eyes in pain. When he opened them, he was back on the _Didyme, _the others staring at them in surprise.

Aro had never felt so helpless before. The mind of the creature had been so different, so vast, that finding a way of manipulating it seemed next to useless. A combination of stubborn selfishness and complete selflessness lived without contradiction in its thoughts.

One thing gave him hope. "The experimentation, it's not lethal."

"Are you sure," asked Carlisle.

Aro nodded. "The experiments will search for and extract certain biological components but the process is designed to cause as little harm to the subjects as possible. The array is clumsy because it has been adapted for its purpose but the equipment for the experiments was built by the entity specifically for the purpose." Aro covered his mouth with his hand for a moment and looked a little sick, remembering what he had seen in the thing's mind. "There are sometimes side-effects after the extraction, lesions, tumors, that kind of thing. The entity transports these subjects to the Ocampa's planet for treatment if the ship carrying them isn't medically advanced."

"Is it something we can handle?"

"Yes, I think so. The experiments will take a few days, and then the subjects are returned to their ship."

"Then we wait," said Carlisle.

Aro said nothing, looking at the viewscreen with an intense concentration, as though sight alone could give him access to the activity on the array.

* * *

B'Elanna woke slowly, blinking in what seemed to be an intense white light. Then automatic responses took over and she tried to jump off the slab she was lying on. _Run_, her instincts told her. _Run or die_. Cold restraints held her down and she struggled violently without effect.

"B'Elanna...B'Elanna!" Cool hands caught her face, caressed her soothingly. "B'Elanna." The voice softened as she quieted in response. Her eyes adjusted finally. Aro's face was close to her own, his expression reassuring. "You're safe now." He stroked her hair, pressing her back onto the narrow bed. "You're safe."

B'Elanna's breath shuddered and then evened out. She focused on Aro, grabbing hold of his hand. He interlaced their fingers and placed his other hand over hers, maintaining eye contact with her. Other emotions were visible on his face now, concern and traces of anger.

"What the hell happened?" she asked when she felt able to form coherent sentences.

"You and the _Voyager_ crew were transported to the array and experimented on by the entity that controls it. The entity is a kind of caretaker for a nearby planet. It's dying and has been looking for a specific set of components that it needs to reproduce." Aro's voice was still soft but the red of his eyes seemed to flare as he spoke.

"H-how long?"

"Three days, then you were all returned. I'm sorry, I tried to get you back sooner but the entity is very powerful."

B'Elanna understood then that the anger he felt was towards himself, because she had been hurt. She tried to sit up and he helped her, keeping hold of her hand. It wasn't until then that she realized they were in the _Voyager_ Sick Bay, and that they weren't alone.

Carlisle was leaning over a dark haired young man in the same type of Federation hospital gown that B'Elanna was wearing. The _Voyager _crew member was covered in purple growths and B'Elanna quickly looked down at her own body. She hissed when she saw them on her upper arm, wrist, and chest, and panic started to well up in her throat again.

"Carlisle is healing your injuries," said Aro comfortingly, "They're a by-product of the experiments apparently, but only you and Ensign Kim received them."

The Sick Bay doors slid open and an authoritative-looking woman entered. She went immediately to Carlisle and his patient.

"Ensign Kim, good to have you back," her metallic voice was kind. The ensign nodded, blushing at her notice and trying to tug his gown further down his legs.

The woman swung around and came to B'Elanna and Aro, standing with her hands on her hips.

"Ah, Captain Janeway, I trust the engines have been repaired to your satisfaction?" Aro asked smiling.

"Fine, better than ever, my compliments to your crew and thank you again for helping us out."

Aro inclined his head in acknowledgement, "We had to do something to pass the time."

She turned her attention to B'Elanna. "So this is your Maquis friend? Hello B'Elanna, I'm Captain Janeway, welcome to _Voyager_."

"Thanks," said B'Elanna uncomfortably. "Going to arrest me now?"

Aro's hand tightened around B'Elanna's. "Not today," he said.

Janeway smiled with one corner of her mouth and B'Elanna began to feel embarrassed as she realized what she and Aro must look like. They were too close together, and holding hands for goodness sake. She wasn't certain what she thought their relationship even was, so having other people making assumptions about it felt like things were going too far.

Aro heard B'Elanna's confusion and ignored it. He had spent the last three days realizing in agonizing detail just how much he had fallen in love with her, and he had no intention of letting go of her now just because Janeway was regarding them with sympathetic amusement.

"Aro, I've been monitoring the array. That energy beam it's sending to the planet, it's been increasing since we were sent back here."

Aro looked only mildly interested. "Do you have a theory."

"As a matter of fact, yes. You said the caretaker entity was dying. I think it's sending as much energy to the Ocampa city as it can before it does. If that's true, we're running out of time."

Aro tilted his head questioningly. "Out of time for what?"

Janeway started to doubt the vampire's intelligence. "The entity brought us to this region of space, it can send us back. We need to ask it to before it dies."

Aro laughed, a high erratic sound that made Janeway take an involuntary step backward. B'Elanna flinched, partly because she was pretty sure Aro wasn't actually amused.

He smiled charmingly at Janeway. "You'd trust that thing to send you _home_?" he asked. "And how many of your crew do you think will survive the return journey?"

Janeway crossed her arms defensively. "We have to try, and we'll be prepared for it this time."

"You're welcome to _try_," said Aro. "Just give us time to get out of the way."

"It will take us 75 years to return home otherwise, even for an immortal, that's a long time to spend in space. Are you sure you want to risk it?"

Aro's smile vanished. "I lost four irreplaceable members of my crew to that array. I don't know how expendable you think your crew is, but mine are most definitely not."

Janeway seemed to struggle for control of her temper, then lowering her chin, she asked in a quieter voice, "Would you at least consider returning to the array with me? You were able to communicate with the entity before, I may not be able to."

Carlisle had joined them and now spoke, "Aro, I would like to return as well."

Aro sighed, "Very well, but I want both ships ready to retreat if need be. The entity is worried about a species in this sector called the Kazan. They've been waiting for a chance to take control of the array for some time now. I don't doubt they're watching now."

"Agreed, and..." Janeway smiled again, "thank you."

* * *

The caretaker entity seemed smaller than Aro remembered, and its color was definitely dimmer. It was silent as Janeway made her request respectfully, and Aro wondered if it could hear them. But the voice spoke in their minds after only a brief pause.

"There's no more time. I have given the Ocampa as much energy as I can, but even that will run out." It sounded inexpressibly sad.

Janeway put her hands to her head as though the voice had hurt her.

"Please, you must understand..."

"The Kazan cannot be allowed to take the array," the entity interrupted. "I will start a self-destruct sequence now. You should leave."

"But..."

"Leave now!" The voice screamed again but did not transport them. Aro doubted that it could. Its size was rapidly diminishing now.

"Wait," said Carlisle suddenly. "Perhaps someone _can _keep the array going after you die, you haven't considered that someone other than your offspring could do that."

Aro grasped Carlisle's wrist in a flash of movement.

The entity flickered, "Explain."

"I am immortal, I could live here forever, keeping the Ocampa protected."

"No," hissed Aro. "You will not."

Janeway stared at the two of them, clearly unprepared for this turn of events.

"The innocent should always be protected," said Carlisle, to the entity as well as to Aro.

"Aro to the _Didyme_," Aro almost shouted, "transport!"

Aro and Carlisle materialized on the bridge of the _Didyme_ glaring at each other.

"It would have been my choice," Carlisle said, barely above a whisper.

"_Voyager_ is hailing us," said Irina.

"Onscreen," snapped Aro.

An image of Janeway on the bridge of _Voyager_ appeared on the viewscreen. She had her hands on her hips again. "The entity is dead, Aro, it didn't have time to start the self-destruct."

"Master, two ships are approaching the array. They match your description of the Kazan"

Carlisle grabbed Aro's arm, "if the Kazan board that array, the Ocampa will die."

Aro lowered his head for a moment, then raised it and looked at Janeway with a grim expression. "We'll help you protect the array, if that is your wish."

Janeway shook her head, "No, the entity spoke to me before it died. The array is too dangerous, it will tip the balance of power in this sector and result in the destruction of many innocent species besides the Ocampa. I now believe that it must be destroyed. I intend to finish what the entity could not."

Aro looked at her with more respect, "Very well, I will take care of the Kazan."

Janeway nodded, the transmission ended.

"Irina, hail the Kazan ships."

A moment later, Aro was smiling genially at a scruffy looking ship's captain on the view screen.

"Captain, how nice of you to join us. I assume you've noticed the odd behavior of this array?"

The Kazan growled, "Whoever you are, move off, this array belongs to us."

Aro grinned, "How nice. May I suggest that _you_ move off 400 kilometers? Or you will find yourself becoming intimately entangled in your array."

"What?" the Kazan looked increasingly suspicious.

"They're powering weapons," said Felix.

"The array is about to self-destruct," Aro replied easily. "You're welcome to watch, but if you prefer to stay..."

The transmission ended abruptly. "They're moving off," said Demetri.

"Follow their example."

Aro touched Carlisle's face gently. "I am sorry, old friend, but I couldn't lose you to your own guilty sense of obligation," he murmured.

Carlisle leaned his head briefly into Aro's hand. _I understand. I regret the lost opportunity to make things right, but I understand._

The light of the exploding array shone through the viewscreen, refracting across their skin, but neither of them turned to see it.


	5. Strange Bedfellows

_Warning: implied lemon_

* * *

"I'm afraid all our replicators are set up for is the standard variety," Janeway handed the glass to Aro and sat down across from him with her own cup of coffee.

Aro smiled, "This is fine, thank you." He took a polite sip of the synthetic blood but he wasn't actually thirsty.

Janeway rested her chin on her hand and smiled at him. "Must be difficult, after all those years."

"You get used to it. Well, we couldn't have managed without replicator technology. Replicated blood is more...enticing shall we say than organic human blood."

"You were very brave to come forward and make that treaty."

Aro tilted his head inquiringly, she was so obviously leading up to something, he wondered how long she would take. He lowered his eyes to the glass and swirled it a little before taking another sip. "A lot of careful planning went into that first reveal. We started thinking about contingencies as soon as the Vulcans made First Contact."

"Sometimes the best plans don't take very much planning at all," Janeway said, leaning forward. "That's what I like, thinking on my feet."

"You want to get home quickly," Aro said bluntly.

"Of course, don't you?"

"Time is different for us, but yes, I'm not fond enough of space travel to spend so many years on it." Aro's expression became sympathetic. "Do you have many family members on Earth?"

Janeway sighed, "My boyfriend, not much in the way of family otherwise." She smiled fondly, "except my dog, and I just found out she's pregnant!"

Aro grinned, "I love furry creatures."

"How about you, there are more of your coven on Earth, aren't there?"

"A number of them, including most of the ones I'm closest to, my coven brothers Marcus and Caius, and my biological sister Didyme. It is difficult being away from them, we make a lot of decisions together."

"What about on your ship?"

Aro gazed into the glass, the color of the blood reflecting his own eyes. "I had three in my crew who I consider my children, because I turned them. Now I only have one, Demetri. I lost Jane and Alec, who really were like my children, because they were only fourteen when they were changed." He looked up at Janeway's slightly shocked expression and said a little apologetically, "Witch-burning, you see. They had….disturbing talents that were obvious even when they were human. I had been waiting to recruit them until they were older, but in the end I was forced to act more precipitously."

"They were so young," said Janeway.

"In their time? Old enough to fight, to marry, to bear children, certainly old enough to die." Aro looked impossibly sad for a moment and then caught himself. "Say what you want to, Captain, I'm listening."

Janeway put her cup on the low table between them. "I want to propose merging our crews. The journey will likely be through mostly uncharted space, we don't know what's out there. We've both lost crew members, together we'd stand a better chance. _Voyager_ could carry the _Didyme_ in the shuttle bay most of the time. We'd be able to pool resources and experience."

"You'd trust a crew of vampires on your ship?"

"Why not? The treaty still holds, doesn't it? Even in the Delta Quadrant? And you've already helped us when you could have just taken off after retrieving your Maquis crew member."

Aro looked amused, and recited mockingly, "'She heard a voice like voice of doves, cooing all together. They sounded kind and full of loves in the pleasant weather.'"

Janeway smiled in recognition. "_Goblin Market_, Christina Rossetti, 19th century Earth."

"Correct."

"Are you saying I shouldn't trust goblin men, Aro?"

"Just...be careful, Captain. We are demons after all."

"Is that a yes to my proposal?"

Aro chuckled, "You are persistent."

"When I know what I want." Janeway's sideways smile could only be called seductive, but Aro recognized as simply part of the way she communicated.

"Very well, Captain Janeway, an alliance, for the journey home."

* * *

They buried their dead together. The _Voyager_ crew members who had not survived were placed in sealed caskets and released into space, a Federation ritual that Aro both understood and felt repulsed by.

He watched the faces of Janeway and her surviving crew, trying to understand how close they had been to the deceased. Janeway and the first officer had an obvious history, judging from the tightness of her jaw when his casket was released, but the others, he was unsure if she had known them that well.

The _Voyager_ crew stood respectfully by while Demetri and Felix carried out the storage container with the _Didyme_ casualties. Aro and Carlisle worked together, their hands blurs of motion, placing the parts together so that shattered versions of the vampires were laid out on the shuttle bay floor.

B'Elanna gasped when Jane's hand twitched towards Aro as he placed portions of her arm above it.

"They're alive," she whispered to Heidi who stood next to her.

"Barely," said Heidi, "they have some awareness, nothing more."

"Can't they be put back together?" B'Elanna glanced at Felix's recently re-attached arm.

Heidi shook her head, "they're too broken, and some of the pieces were badly burned."

B'Elanna watched Aro's expression, sad and quiet. He carefully kissed the fractured foreheads of each of the vampires, lingering over Jane with his own forehead gently pressed to hers. Then he straightened and nodded to Carlisle. Together they set fire to the bodies which were reduced to ash within moments.

Released from the ritual of burial, the crews turned inward, friends comforting friends. Carlisle held Aro for a few minutes, his dark head buried in the doctor's shoulder. B'Elanna noticed his shoulders shuddering but when he raised his head, his face was dry. Vampires can't shed tears, she remembered, and wiped her own away, feeling as though she had been crying for him.

Afterwards, Aro stood among the merged crews and listened to Janeway make her speech, reminding them of their mission as part of the Federation, exhorting them all to rise to the challenge, to take every ethical opportunity to shorten _Voyager's_ journey home, to work together for their united cause. It was a good speech, highlighting her strengths as captain. Aro reflected that he would have to support this role, for the sake of her crew as well as his own.

He kept looking over at B'Elanna, standing with Carlisle and Harry Kim. He wanted to take her hand as before but the uncertainty of her feelings for him the last time they had touched made him hold back. He wanted her desperately to love him now and he was certain that if he received proof that she didn't, he would throw himself out the nearest airlock and join the dead _Voyager_ crew members floating in space. The dread he had felt since he had first seen the Array lay like a weight on his chest. He had never come so close to being paralyzed by fear.

* * *

B'Elanna felt at a complete loss once she was alone in her new quarters on _Voyager_. Even on such a utilitarian ship, the Federation obsession with comfortable living spaces meant that she now had a room the size of the bridge on Chakotay's ship, complete with its own bathroom and sonic shower. This was pleasantly distracting and she stayed in it long enough to be completely sure that she had gotten rid of the sterile hospital smell that still clung to her from her time on the Array.

After that she wandered around aimlessly, looking at the personal belongings of the deceased previous occupant and feeling like an intruder before throwing herself on the bed with a groan of frustration. Sleep seemed to be the only way to escape the bizarre turn everything had taken. Federation beds were comfortable at least, she thought, staring at the ceiling, probably just as comfortable in the rehabilitation camp she would end up in if _Voyager_ made it back to Earth in her lifetime.

She woke some time later to find Aro looking out the window at the streaming starscape. In the dim light of her cabin, only his face was illuminated, his hair and dark clothing were inky shadows. B'Elanna turned on her side and watched him. She thought he looked somber and weary, and somehow younger than usual, like the exiled prince of a fallen empire.

"Aro..."

He turned, "I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were alright. Go back to sleep, you're tired."

He stepped away from the window but she got out of bed and stopped him before he could reach the door. He gazed at her with mute longing, his hand twitched for a moment as though he were going to read her but then decided against it. She looked into his beautiful face and couldn't think of what to say, but she knew what she wanted to do and thought instantaneously became action. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and glossy hair and kissed him, warmth meeting cool solidity. Happiness surged through Aro, she wanted him, she needed him. He responded fervently, gathering her in. B'Elanna wanted to lead him towards the bed, but in a blur of motion they were in it before she could finish the thought.

There was a hushed silence in the room that coexisted strangely with the urgency of their movements. For a few moments all they cared about was getting each other's clothing off. Aro was engagingly gentle when they were together, even the lightest caress sending a charge through B'Elanna's skin. Her own movements by contrast were becoming increasingly rough and she tasted the familiar acidic burn of violence at the back of her throat as her adrenaline spiked. She had always been able to restrain her Klingon sexual instincts with a human partner, but the knowledge that she couldn't hurt Aro somehow made the irrational desire to damage him in some way almost too strong to resist. She clenched her teeth, choking down the urge. Damn Klingon DNA, she thought furiously.

Aro soothed her, taking her face in his cool hands and brushing soft kisses over her ridged forehead and under her jaw before returning to her mouth, moving his hands over her with a slow sensuousness that made B'Elanna forget everything else. Warmth spread through her body where he touched her. She found she had been gripping the sheets tightly, now she released them and ran her hands along his back, his dark hair sliding over her shoulders like silk as he moved against her.

B'Elanna remembered the first time he had held her, on the Didyme when everything went wrong. She thought about him protecting her while his ship broke and burned around them. Something had changed in that terrible moment - now even when apart, they fit into each other. _I love him_, B'Elanna thought, and she heard Aro gasp with rapturous joy. _I love you_, she corrected herself internally, _I love you Aro_.

"I love you too. B'Elanna," he breathed in her ear ecstatically, drawing out the syllables of her name so it itself became an endearment. She caught hold of his face and kissed him, relieved to find her movements tender again. He smiled gleefully and kissed her again.

Afterwards, when she couldn't stay awake any longer, he held her in his arms, his forehead against hers, listening to her dreaming. Aro liked being close to the people he loved, a reason why he had never regretted his talent, but this closeness with B'Elanna was something new, as though he had found his twin soul. She stirred, pressing herself against his chest despite the chill of his body, and dreamt again. Aro kissed her eyelids softly. The ship sped onwards through the cruel, uncaring stars, but he was no longer afraid.


	6. Rules of Engagement

_Warning: lime  
_

* * *

"He's trying to keep me out of trouble, isn't he?"

Demetri looked up from his control panel. "Who?"

B'Elanna looked up, "Who do you think?" She was sitting on the floor of the _Didyme_ bridge, piecing together an elaborate wiring system between the _Voyager_ sensors and the _Didyme_ computer. The Volturi ship, which now took up most of the _Voyager_ shuttle bay, had just become the subject of an experiment to chart _Voyager's_ course home.

"I'm sure Aro thought you'd be best placed here today," said Demetri diplomatically.

"He made it very clear he didn't want me around any of the Starfleet crew." B'Elanna's voice was somewhat muffled as she took out a panel covering and peered into the inner workings of the ship.

"We're all one crew now," said Demetri, his fingers flying across the controls. He paused to adjust his Starfleet uniform's collar. "More's the pity, since it involves wearing unfashionable and ill-fitting uniforms…."

"If you hate your uniform so much, I'd be happy to rip it off you tonight," Felix said playfully, on his way past with a stack of data chips. Demetri tried unsuccessfully to suppress a little delighted smile.

B'Elanna looked from one to the other, as she accepted the chips from Felix. "So are you two…?"

"Mates," said Felix, "About 800 years, ever since I was turned."

"Congratulations."

"Thanks."

"You haven't completely distracted me from my question though. I get the distinct impression I'm being kept away from Engineering."

Felix knelt down beside B'Elanna and started helping her assemble circuit boards, "It's because of Lt. Carey."

"Felix," hissed Demetri.

"Aro thinks you'll break Carey's nose if you have to follow his orders," Felix continued unconcerned by his mate's warning.

"I guess that's probably true," said B'Elanna, remembering her multiple disciplinary hearings at Starfleet Academy. "What's he like?"

"Typical limited human brain," said Demetri, frowning. "He questioned all the improvements we made to the _Voyager_ engine room while you were on the Array."

"_I'd_ like to break his nose," said Felix, and smiled in a cheerful way that suggested how much he would have enjoyed the experience.

"Do I have a typical limited human brain?" B'Elanna fished around on the floor for the right tool.

"No, obviously not, you've already done some very strange things to the ship's systems that I would never have thought of."

B'Elanna began replacing wall panels, she wasn't sure how to respond. She knew her own worth, and now so did Aro.

"Does it ever get inconvenient, Aro knowing you so well?"

"You mean like the way he's going to know exactly what we've been saying to each other just now? Yessss," said Felix.

"He _wants_ to know," said Demetri. "If it made him uncomfortable, he would avoid contact. That makes it easier to be so exposed to him." He made a few adjustments to his controls and the view screen suddenly lit up.

The _Didyme's_ computer interpretations of the _Voyager_ sensor readings extended in all directions and in multiple overlapping formats on the screen. B'Elanna squinted at it and stepped closer.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing to a small dot of color near their own position.

"Good question," said Demetri, excited and rapidly entering commands into his panel. "Let's find out."

* * *

"The gloves are a nice addition," said Janeway smiling. "Not Starfleet issue I'm assuming."

Aro held up his hands, clad in tight black gloves, and admired them. "I wear these when I'm around non-vampires, it makes me less intimidating if people don't think I'm reading their minds all the time."

"But you don't mind intimidating vampires?" Janeway looked amused. She had read Aro's file in the database but couldn't reconcile his fearsome reputation with the endearing, even cute, figure before her.

"My coven has governed the vampire world for centuries. I _have_ to intimidate them."

Janeway took a sip of coffee. "Have I mentioned how grateful I am your people fixed the replicators?"

Aro grinned. "A few times. It was a necessity for us as well. I've taken the liberty of storing emergency rations for the vampire crew members in Cargo Bay One."

"Of course, I understand."

They were sitting in the Briefing Room, just off the _Voyager_ bridge, enjoying the friendliness peculiar to new partnerships before the details are discussed. Aro eyed Janeway thoughtfully and then passed her the first of the data pads he had brought with him.

"My recommendation for Chief Medical Officer."

Janeway smiled at the pad's contents, "I see we've come to the same conclusion on this one. Does Carlisle need additional personnel or he can handle the entire Sick Bay on his own?"

"He wants to talk to you about training other members of the crew, but mostly, yes, he can handle quite a lot."

He flipped through his stack of pads casually and then handed all but one of them to Janeway. "My other personnel recommendations."

Janeway raised her eyebrows, "You've certainly been generous with your own people…. Transporter Chief, Astrogation plotter, Chief Tactical Officer…all Volturi."

"Most of your top ranking officers were killed during the Array transportation. All these crew members are skilled and experienced enough to more than replace them."

"The Starfleet officers on this ship have worked long and hard to earn their commissions. I don't think I can ask them to accept a vampire as their superior officer just because we've entered into an alliance."

"They seem to have accepted me as your first officer," Aro pointed out.

"That's different."

Aro smiled, "Because I'm charming and adorable."

Janeway gave him a sideways smile, "Something like that."

"You think of me as your friendly daemon, a creature of darkness harnessed to fulfill your commands."

There was an undercurrent of mockery in these words that made Janeway a little uncomfortable. "I think now you're taking this out of proportion."

Aro formed his hands into a peak in front of him and tilted his head to one side. Janeway suddenly felt much less relaxed being alone in a room with him.

"You seem to forget who has the advantage here, Captain. I could take my ship and my highly skilled, immortal, superhuman people and find our own way home quite easily. While you and your decimated crew try to keep running a starship that you are rapidly losing the ability to manage."

Janeway's face became stony and she lowered her chin defensively. "Is that a threat?"

"No," said Aro softly. He rose and came slowly towards her, placing his hands on the table next to her and bringing his face close to hers. His large eyes gleamed red. "This is a threat." His voice was low and seductive. "We could drain you and your entire crew in under five minutes, take over _Voyager_ and fly this ship all the way back to the Alpha Quadrant. And when we got there, it would be as if we never left, while your bones rot in the Delta Quadrant with the rest of your fallen crew." Aro concluded with an exaggerated articulation of his tongue that confusingly both aroused and paralyzed Janeway.

She swallowed hard, cold tendrils of fear spreading over her back. "I thought we had an agreement, Aro."

Aro perched on the table and returned smoothly to his previous genial demeanor. "Oh we do, and I am just as committed to it as before. I'm prepared to serve as your first officer and protect your crew as though they were my own. But you must honor the agreement as well. The recommendations I've made are for our collective good, after all."

Lt. Stadi's silken voice cut in, "Stadi to Captain Janeway."

"Go ahead," said Janeway, without taking her eyes off of Aro, who was smiling kindly at her.

"Demetri just sent some data to the bridge. _Voyager_ is on route to encounter a Type-4 quantum singularity. Permission to alter course to avoid the phenomenon."

"Permission granted."

Aro looked smug, "Told you so."

Janeway sighed, "It's going to be a long 75 years." But she had relaxed again. _Better the devil you know._...

Aro grinned and reached across the table for his last data pad. "One more personnel recommendation," he said innocently.

Janeway looked from the pad to Aro in wide-eyed astonishment. "You've got to be kidding me."

* * *

B'Elanna was drinking a solitary cup of post-dinner coffee in the Mess Hall when she received a summons from Janeway to the Briefing Room. She scowled angrily, because it sounded suspiciously like an invitation to a trip down memory lane with her Academy record and her subsequent criminal activities with the Maquis.

It was with considerable surprise then that she entered the room to find Janeway and most of the Volturi seated at the conference table, along with Lt. Stadi and Ensign Kim, who waved shyly at her.

"Ahh, B'Elanna," said Aro, "Welcome, take a seat."

B'Elanna sat down cautiously in the empty chair next to Carlisle.

"Congratulations, Lt. Torres. You're the new Chief Engineer," said Captain Janeway, looking inscrutable and just a little menacing.

B'Elanna felt stunned. She glanced quickly at Aro who was smiling gleefully at her.

"Thank you...Captain," she said slowly.

Janeway lifted her chin authoritatively. "Now that we're all here, let's begin the senior officers briefing."

* * *

Leaving the Briefing Room, Aro took B'Elanna's arm gently and steered her to the turbolift. They were silent as they made their way to B'Elanna's quarters.

Once inside, there was a moment of uncertainty. B'Elanna had questions she wasn't sure she wanted to ask, and he hadn't touched her yet. He didn't know.

"B'Elanna…." Aro held out his hand to her, then found his arms full of her warm body and her lips against his. B'Elanna went for broke, running her fingers into his sleek hair and kissing him hard.

Aro gave a muffled moan and shoved B'Elanna against the nearest wall, pulling her right knee up to his hip and pressing into her. He clutched the back of her head and returned her kiss with a greater passion, going to the limits of his self-control. He was drowning in her senses, the sensations of her body were his. He knew exactly what it was like for her to want him, to respond to him, and to feel what he was giving in return. It was indescribable, an experience beyond intimacy.

He let B'Elanna push him onto the bed, pinning him down and kissing his neck, leaving trails of warmth on his skin. He gasped her name, gripping her forearms just a little too hard. The difference between the two of them became thin, almost invisible. B'Elanna yanked his jacket open, baring her teeth. Aro felt the surge of violence that ran through her enter his own body and he snarled back at her. The sound startled them and they both froze at the same time, their breathing shuddering, staring at each other.

"Sorry," said B'Elanna, stiffly, and looked away, embarrassed that she had become aggressive again.

Aro pulled her down to him, their faces close together but not touching. "I'm sorry, I started to lose control."

"It's alright."

"It isn't." He pulled her closer and she laid her face against his chest. Her wrists ached even though he hadn't touched her there. The ache was repeated in her heart, and in the knot in her throat. "You're in pain."

"You didn't hurt me."

"Just barely, and I let you go too far, I'm sorry."

B'Elanna clenched her fists and released them, willing the pain to go away. It was intolerable that he could feel it too.

"Klingons have an extraordinarily high capacity for experiencing pain. It sends endorphins into their brains, that's why they have such a thing about pain sticks and fighting games. Getting angry, getting violent, it does the same thing. That's why you want to hurt me."

His voice was calm now, soothing against B'Elanna's heated forehead.

"Humans have a much lower capacity, a much higher pain threshold. You're a hybrid, part of you is generating energy that another part of you can't process, that's why it hurts you when you get upset."

"So what am I supposed to do about it?" asked B'Elanna, a little belligerently.

"Well we could divide you surgically into two people, one Klingon and one Human. That would help."

"What?!" B'Elanna raised her head to glare at him, but Aro was grinning.

"It's really a matter of control, I can help you with that, I know a little about the subject," and he lifted his head to press a soft kiss just under her jaw, where her pulse jumped beneath his lips.

B'Elanna shivered, but not with fear. When they kissed again, the earlier intensity returned but she was ready for it now.

Afterward, B'Elanna propped her chin Aro's chest and returned his warm, loving smile while his fingers traced lines across her back and arms. She felt safe enough now to ask the question that he must have read some time ago.

"Do you want me to change?"

Aro sighed. "Your Klingon DNA…we've never tested the effects of venom on non-humans, it might not work, or not work normally."

"But you do want me to be a vampire, eventually?"

"I want to be with you for all eternity, so yes, but I just nearly lost you twice, I don't want to contemplate doing anything right now that could harm you."

B'Elanna moved to lie on her back beside him, her mind was already racing to consider how the venom could be tested. "I want to be with you forever too."

He turned his head toward her. "I know," he lifted her hand and kissed it almost reverently.

She looked back at him, "You know everything about me, my childhood, how I feel about my family, everything it would have taken me a long time to be able to tell you, even things I would never have told you in a million years." B'Elanna remembered something in particular and winced.

"It's not actually embarrassing," Aro reassured her, "lots of people do that when they're alone."

"Shut up."

"Sorry."

"I want to know about you, I want to know everything about you."

"You wouldn't thank me for giving you nearly 4,000 years of personal information."

"Just start somewhere important."

He was silent for a few moments, then turned on his side to face her. She turned as well and he looked into her eyes searchingly before starting to speak, in a lower tone than before.

"My venom daughter Jane, when I first turned her and her brother Alec, she was immediately very talented. She could create the illusion of intense pain in someone's mind and this made her both dangerous and mistrusted. Alec had the happy gift of always making friends, even though his talent was actually far more terrifying. But Jane, she always felt alone and abandoned, and in return she was volatile, sadistic, terribly unhappy. I had to work very hard to make her understand that I loved her with the unconditional love of a parent, that she was protected and cared for with me. She gradually got better, more mature, less vicious. Once, when she had been a vampire for several years, I asked her to use her talent on me, because I was curious."

"You wanted to feel intense pain because you were...curious?"

Aro grinned, "I've done worse out of curiosity. I had seen her at work many times and she was always effective, I wanted to know why. It was...remarkable. I thought I could handle it because I knew what was happening, but once she began, I just started screaming. It was like having my mind set on fire, it overrode all of my senses. I scared her of course, she thought she had broken me for good. But in the end, this is what finally convinced Jane that I loved her, because I had voluntarily encountered the part of her that was most terrible, and most wonderful. Because I had agreed to let her hurt me, and it hadn't changed how I felt about her."

Aro looked at B'Elanna earnestly, "When you love someone enough, they will cause you pain. We keep trying not to hurt each other, but there is an implicit hurt in loving someone as much as we do. You have and will cause me pain beyond bearing, and I will go on loving you."

Something in B'Elanna's heart seemed to open, flooding her with emotion. Aro's cool arms were around her, his face against hers. She found his mouth and kissed him, as though trying to drink him in. Aro rolled B'Elanna over onto her back again, moving against her with renewed urgency, knowing without having to put it into words that she would have to change, that it was wrong to think they could ever be parted by something as insubstantial as time.


	7. Choices

Warning, this chapter contains some mildly disturbing imagery and mention of AU character death.

* * *

_In the dark, they were taking her apart._

_She opened her mouth but could not draw breath to cry out._

_Her body was split open and nothing belonged to her anymore._

_Ventricles and lungs were lifted away._

_Her chest was hollow and cold._

Shana Stadi woke gasping for air, her heart beating so loudly she could hear the blood thudding in her ears. She looked around her quarters frantically. Where they still there, in the shadows?

"Computer, lights!"

The familiar shapes and colors of the room were illuminated instantly but they did not bring her comfort.

Stadi got out of bed and splashed cold water on her face at the sink. In the mirror, her obsidian eyes and black hair framed features that were usually sensuous and warm but now looked stark white and empty. She tried to focus on the reality of the present moment but she could no longer keep telling herself it had just been a nightmare, the same as the ones she had been having since_ Voyager_ left the Alpha Quadrant.

Her death _was_ real, it just hadn't happened yet.

* * *

On the bridge, Aro checked the logs one more time. Everything was in order, nothing but a red dwarf system had been sighted by Demetri's sensor data and even that only contained one M-Class planet with a pre-warp civilization. Aro had ordered Gianna to steer clear of the system, following his policy of always avoiding anything that seemed potentially complicated when traveling in space.

The bridge was peaceful at this time of the ship's day/night cycle. Janeway had initially resisted assigning only vampire crew members to the night shift but Aro had persuasively argued in favor of instilling stability among the other crew members by keeping the already thinned community together as much as possible. Janeway had suspected correctly that Aro liked to have time alone with the ship and his own crew but in the end it had been easier to agree. She had tried to ignore the kind, beneficent smile that Aro always gave her when she surrendered a point to him and went on frowning at him whenever they met with that firm set of her mouth that Aro privately found very endearing.

Aro stood, glancing behind him at Felix on tactical and Irina at the comm, then put a hand on Gianna's shoulder. "You have the bridge, Lieutenant."

Gianna rose and took the captain's chair with self-conscious grace, settling herself in regally.

"Don't get too used to it," Aro murmured teasingly, making the young vampire smile, pleased with the attention.

In the turbolift, Aro asked the computer for B'Elanna's location.

"B'Elanna Torres is in Engineering."

"Thank you, computer. You're very kind."

"Please restate the question."

Aro chuckled. For some reason he found it endlessly amusing to keep being polite to the computer AI despite or perhaps because of its incomprehension.

There was no one in Engineering except B'Elanna and Heidi, both occupied with complicated panel displays. Heidi nodded to him and then turned pointedly away, granting Aro as much privacy as one could reasonably expect in a ship full of vampires.

"You're at work early," commented Aro to B'Elanna, slipping his arms around her from behind. B'Elanna leaned back against him but went on configuring, referring to the datapad in her hand. "I was hoping to spend some time with you before your shift started." He kissed her neck above the collar of her uniform.

B'Elanna shivered at the warmth that flooded her body from his cool touch. "Well then you shouldn't have given me the job of making sure the ship keeps moving and doesn't blow up," she said tersely but with a flicker of happiness under her voice that Aro experienced in full through her mind.

"I would say that sometimes I regret that decision, but I don't. I need you here, B'Elanna."

B'Elanna turned her head so he could kiss her properly. She was smiling now. Aro grinned, kissed her again, and then released her, moving to lean against the bank of panels.

"Carlisle and I are going to make our proposal to Janeway this morning."

Already getting lost again in her calculations, B'Elanna looked up quickly.

"I thought you were still running tests on the non-human DNA."

"Carlisle is confident enough from the genetic markers that the procedure could be tried in an emergency situation, so long as the risks are explained."

"And how do you think the Captain is going to react to the idea of her crew electing to turn into vampires if they're mortally injured?"

"Badly, at first. But I'm willing to take that risk." Aro reached out and stroked B'Elanna's hand, more for comfort than for communication because he was wearing his gloves. "What I'm not willing to do is lose any more crew members than we can possibly avoid. No one's expendable as far as I'm concerned."

B'Elanna nodded, then leaned over and kissed him lightly. "Good luck."

Aro left the quiet hum of Engineering reluctantly. On his way out, he met Ensign Vorik coming in, apparently also eager to be at work early. Vulcans always went the extra mile and in addition Aro suspected Vorik of harboring an illogical crush on Heidi. Vorik respectfully bowed his head to him a little and Aro patted him on the shoulder. Displaying physical affection for Vulcans was also one of Aro's private amusements.

* * *

"Mind if I sit here?"

B'Elanna looked up distractedly. She had been so wrapped up in her various datapads that it took her a moment to recognize the young ensign hesitating by her table in the Mess Hall.

"Harry, sorry, of course, be my guest."

Harry Kim smiled nervously and sat down across from her with his tray. Being on _Voyager_ still felt like the first day of Starfleet Academy to him. He was spending most of his time working on diagnostics and generally hiding from other people, but he liked B'Elanna despite her reputation and his loneliness had gotten to the point that he felt desperate enough to start making friends.

Harry was about to ask about the datapads when the doors slid open and most of the Volturi crew members entered, laughing over some private joke. Harry watched them silently as they made their way to the replicators.

"Do they make you nervous?" asked B'Elanna sympathetically.

"No," he said, shaking his head, and then shrugged a little. "Ahh, I guess so." He leaned forward and lowered his voice. "Do you remember the elite students at the Academy, the ones who always got the special projects and assignments?"

B'Elanna rolled her eyes, "Of course, used to drive me crazy."

"It's a bit like that. They're just so…above it all."

"I should warn you, they can hear everything you're saying."

Harry winced, "Damn."

B'Elanna laughed, "It's ok, they're used to it. Unlike the elite students, they're actually friendly." She waved to the vampires and they came over to the table carrying their opaque glasses and canisters of replicated blood.

Demetri bowed respectfully. "May we join you, Lieutenant?"

B'Elanna gestured to the empty seats. "Please do, Lieutenant."

"My lady," Demetri murmured, sitting down next to her. B'Elanna shoved him playfully to no effect.

Harry found himself quickly surrounded by a number of immortals drinking human blood. He fiddled nervously with his fork.

"Was your transtator assembly diagnostic successful?"

"Hm?" Harry looked up to find Heidi smiling at him. "Ahh…" his mouth went completely dry. There was no doubt that Heidi was the most attractive person he'd ever met of any species.

Heidi raised an eyebrow. "Don't take it personally."

"What?"

"It's her talent," said Felix from the other side of the table. "She attracts people."

Harry stuffed a forkful of pancake into his mouth and tried to breath and chew at the same time.

"Just keep talking," said Irina, "it'll get easier over time."

"Ok...um...the diagnostic went well," Harry forced himself to keep forming sentences. "Ah...there are some improvements I need to make though."

"Want Irina and I to help?" Heidi asked brightly, sipping from her glass.

"Uh...yes?"

Felix patted him on the shoulder. "You're doing good," he whispered.

The relaxed mood of the group made Harry feel brave enough to ask Felix what replicated blood tasted like.

"We're all drinking different blends but pretty much like blood usually tastes."

"Except to us it tastes appetizing rather than disturbing," remarked Gianna.

"I tasted Aro's blend yesterday," said B'Elanna, and punched Demetri in the shoulder to keep him from making a dirty joke at her expense. "It was certainly more intense than any time I've tasted my own blood."

Felix scoffed. "Aro doesn't drink blood like a normal vampire. His blend is pretty much a concentrate. It's like eating Christmas pudding three times a day for all eternity."

"He based it on someone he...ah...met this one time…." said Demetri, realizing he was getting into uncomfortable territory for the humans at the table.

Harry felt a little sick in spite of his own fascination with the vampires. They were so _nice_, it was hard to keep remembering how many humans they had killed...and drained.

B'Elanna saw Harry's expression and wondered if there was something wrong with her. Was it ok that she had been so immediately accepting of Aro and his coven? Was it some Klingon blood lust that made it seem normal to live with, to sleep with, to contemplate turning into what was essentially a race of fiends and monsters? Demetri nudged her, thinking she was back to worrying about Engineering. She returned his affectionate smile and pushed her uncomfortable questioning to the back of her mind where Aro would find it when he touched her later. He would comfort her at least, even if finding satisfactory answers might prove difficult.

* * *

"No, absolutely not." Janeway's hands were on her hips, a gesture that Aro recognized as an indication of self-confidence.

"This is not an unreasonable suggestion." Aro's voice was soft and diplomatic.

Janeway sighed, recognizing in Aro's tone of voice the certainty of success. The two senior officers had come to know each other well in the last few weeks.

"We have a long and dangerous journey. It's reasonable to expect that there will be casualties along the way. We should do everything we can to prevent the death of crew members."

"Of course," Janeway's voice was almost a metallic growl, "but there's no reason to resort to extreme measures. This is still a Federation ship. I won't have my crew converted into a vampire coven just because we're 70,000 light years from the Alpha Quadrant."

Aro lifted his hands soothingly. "No one's talking about turning the entire crew, Captain. It would be up to each crew member, a personal choice which would go into effect only in the most dire circumstances."

Janeway paced angrily. "You wouldn't be saving anyone, Aro, just turning them into something else entirely. It's unnatural."

"Not to us. Remember that I lost children on this mission. Turning humans is how my species procreates. You wouldn't tell a human crew member not to have children until we reach the Alpha Quadrant."

"Carlisle?" Janeway appealed to the doctor as an objective observer. In the last few weeks, she had grown to trust the kind, enigmatic vampire as the only available Volturi who wasn't afraid of Aro's disapproval.

Carlisle was standing thoughtfully, silent so far in the conversation. He turned to Janeway, ignoring Aro's bright, anticipatory gaze. He and Aro had previously agreed on what would most convince the captain but the whole concept had been troubling Carlisle and at the moment he did not want to reassure Janeway with facts and diagrams. When he spoke, he sounded different, quieter, sader.

"A long time ago, I left the Volturi coven for a while. There was an epidemic of influenza on Earth and I wanted to help since I was immune to the disease myself."

Aro placed a cautioning hand on Carlisle's shoulder, but his expression was sympathetic.

"In America, I treated a woman who was beyond help. She had a son who was a talented young man, remarkably pure-hearted and while she was dying, he became ill as well. Before she died, she begged me to save her son and I agreed. I did all that I could for him medically and when that failed, I turned him."

"What happened to him?" Janeway asked softly, taking her hands off her hips. Aro bowed his head against Carlisle's shoulder.

"He was horrified to find himself turned into a monster. I've always drunk animal blood and I taught him how to as well. I hoped that his diet and my own example of a virtuous life would reconcile him to his existence in time but he never accepted it. I understood, the first few years of my vampire life, I tried several times to destroy myself but unlike me, he could never see himself as anything but a demon, a destroyer of human souls. In the end he petitioned our coven leaders to be destroyed. He only lived two years, barely a moment for a vampire."

Carlisle closed his eyes for a moment and then looked at Janeway with a more assured expression. "Kathryn, my mistake was never giving my son a choice. If the _Voyager_ crew can make their own decisions, then they will not have to lose their humanity."

* * *

The crew of the _Voyager_ paused in their work when Aro's soft voice floated over the ship's com channel.

In Engineering, B'Elanna looked up from remodulating power settings and watched the expressions of those around her as they took in his announcement.

"Commander Aro to all crew members. I have been authorized by Captain Janeway to make the following statement. During our journey home, there may be circumstances which result in serious and life-threatening injury. If a crew member is mortally injured and beyond medical treatment, I will offer the option of being turned. The turning can be performed by myself or the ship's doctor provided that the crew member in question has no other medical option, has a reasonable chance of living long enough to survive the turning, and has previously agreed to the procedure. Dr. Cullen has a form to fill out in Sick Bay if you wish to agree to this option. Dr. Cullen will explain implications for non-humans and hybrids to you in more detail."

There was a pause. On the bridge, Aro looked over at Janeway, seeing the lingering apprehension in her stern expression. He folded his hands and continued.

"This is not a choice to be taken lightly. You will survive but you will no longer belong to the Human species. Your biology will be significantly altered. You will cease to be able to sleep or to eat human food. Your strength, senses, and mental activity will be increased. Your lifespan will become indefinite and you will stop aging. But you will desire human blood beyond reason. For the first year after the change you will be confined to your quarters and will be unable to interact with any non-vampire crew members until your self-control can be relied upon. It is possible it will take even longer for you to gain control over your instincts. You will return to Federation space as a different person than you left, different from your family, from your ancestors. The choice is yours alone and I advise you to think carefully before making it."

In Engineering there was silence after Aro finished speaking, then Lt. Carey turned to B'Elanna and asked, "Are you going to sign up?" His tone implied,_ "since you're sleeping with one of them…."_

"Yes," B'Elanna said truthfully. "What about you?"

Lt. Carey looked thoughtful and less antagonistic. "I don't know. If it takes us 70 light years to get home, I still wouldn't be able to see my wife again, but I would be able to know my children."

For the first time, B'Elanna realized that Carey was just another person, like herself. She felt suddenly very guilty for having never noticed this before.

* * *

Later, on his way back to Sick Bay, Aro ran into Lt. Stadi in the corridor.

"Commander Aro, may I speak with you for a moment."

Aro smiled genially. "Of course, Lieutenant, what can I do for you?"

When the normally self-possessed Betazoid hesitated, Aro's expression changed, anticipatory, questioning, and then frankly concerned.

A short while later, Janeway heard her ready room door buzz.

"Come." She looked up to see Aro enter with her Betazoid helmsman.

"Captain, pardon the intrusion, but Lt. Stadi has something she wants to ask us," said Aro. His expression was neutral.

"Lieutenant? Is something wrong?" Janeway asked sympathetically. Stadi was obviously anxious. Her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides.

"I heard Commander Aro's announcement," said Stadi. "I don't want to wait for something to happen to me, I want to become a vampire now."

Janeway looked quickly at Aro with an accusatory glare but he shook his head. She leaned forward, "Shana, this is a serious decision. Besides the changes to your body, you'd be out of commission for a year. May I ask your reasons?"

"I don't want to die. It's my decision, Captain. You're my commanding officer, but you can't stop me from making a personal choice."

"No, but I can," said Aro. "We don't just turn anyone who asks." He put his hand comfortingly on Stadi's arm. "Have you considered that vampires have died already on this mission? You wouldn't be invulnerable."

"I know," said Stadi, steadying her voice, "but it would still be better."

Aro drew off the glove on his free hand. "Give me your hand, Lieutenant," he said quietly.

"No!" Stadi tried to pull away but he held her arm firmly.

"Aro, we agreed you wouldn't read anyone without their permission," Janeway said firmly.

"We did, but I waive that agreement when the ship is in danger." Aro pulled Stadi closer. "Because you are planning on harming the ship, aren't you? A little accident after you signed up in Sick Bay, enough to force the issue if I didn't agree to your request."

"Captain…." Stadi's voice was despairing.

"Give him your hand, Lieutenant," said Janeway, rising from her seat. She looked stern and dangerous.

Stadi lifted her hand and Aro took it firmly. As soon as their skin made contact, Aro gasped, his head tilting back slightly and his eyes widening. Slowly, he turned his head to look at Stadi, with an expression that could be easily mistaken for fear.

Stadi's eyes filled with tears and she drew in a ragged breath. "It's true, isn't it?" She choked a little as though trying and failing to sob.

"Aro?" Janeway came around the desk to stand at Aro's shoulder, their faces close. "What did you see?"

Aro collected himself a little, but when he looked at Janeway, his eyes appeared almost clouded, as though he wasn't seeing her at all. "They're coming," he said. "They're coming for all of us."


	8. Whispers in the Dark (CHAPTER REBOOT)

**_Author's Note: This is a complete reboot of the previously posted Chapter 8 as the first version was a bit of a disaster. I like the current version a lot, however, so this one stays._ **

* * *

Shana Stadi woke slowly, blinking her eyes in the dim light, trying to remember where she was.

"You're in Sick Bay," said Aro quietly.

Shana focused her eyes on the dark-haired vampire seated next to her biobed, and then looked down to see that he was holding her left hand in both of his ungloved hands.

"You've been reading me….?" she asked, groggy from her medicated sleep.

"I wanted to see your vision while you were having it, but you didn't dream at all. I suppose the sedative Dr. Cullen gave you got in the way."

"You do believe me, don't you, Commander?"

Aro tilted his head. "I'm not a perfect arbiter of what is true or not."

Shana's lovely black eyes looked up at him with hurt and desperate longing.

"Do you trust me that much, Lieutenant? You thought me a monster when we first met, and now I can validate your mental abilities?"

"Please…." Her hand moved out of his and touched his face, the veins on her wrist tantalizingly close to his mouth. "Master."

"I'm not going to turn you, Shana," Aro said gently, making no move towards her hand. "Even though I am extremely tempted. Between your natural telepathic abilities and these visions, I believe you would make for a very fascinating vampire. But you are terrified of death, and that is a bad beginning for an immortal life."

Shana dropped her hand and sat up. "But you have to believe me, you saw the visions, you must!" Across the room, Carlisle looked up uneasily, wondering if he should intervene.

"I don't know what to believe at this moment, but that is of little consequence in the end." His expression softened and he reached out and stroked Shana's head gently. "Rest assured, little one, you are not insane. You can trust me on this. What you need now is care and protection, and you will receive it. I'm relieving you of your duties until Dr. Cullen and I are satisfied you are no longer a danger to yourself or others."

"Yes, Commander." Shana lay back on the biobed and covered her eyes with her arm, tears beginning to run down her face. Aro stood and beckoned to Carlisle who came over with another dose of sedative.

"This will help you rest, Shana, you're extremely sleep-deprived at the moment, it's making you feel worse," said Carlisle soothingly. Shana nodded stoically, and then her body slowly relaxed again. Aro and Carlisle looked at each other over her still body. There was something even more ominous in the absence of Shana's visions than in their presence, like a ghost at the feast, mocking the serenity of the ship.

They held a conference in Carlisle's little glass-walled office afterwards, speaking in low voices although there was no one to hear them.

"What are we telling Janeway?" Carlisle asked.

"That we have no definite theories at this point," said Aro. "But on the other hand we should be alert for anything odd in the sensor readings." He went silent, looking off into the middle distance as though seeing something far away.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Carlisle asked.

"Not really," said Aro, fiddling with a piece of medical equipment he had found on Carlisle's desk, until Carlisle took it away from him.

"What did you see? In Shana's mind?"

"Terrible things."

"More than dreams?"

"I saw something that will happen in the future."

"A prophetic dream?" Carlisle asked in surprise.

Aro didn't answer for a few moments, closing his eyes and putting his hand over his mouth as though he were nauseous or in pain.

"Shana Stadi is a psychic. She thought she was having nightmares because she couldn't remember enough details when she woke to able to distinguish the visions from ordinary dreams, until last night. The visions are getting stronger, more specific."

"Shana told me she was going to die."

"That's what she saw."

"Where? How? On _Voyager_?"

"According to her visions, there will be some sort of an attack on the ship. Everyone will die."

"A battle?"

"At first, but _Voyager_ will have little chance of defending itself, after that it will be simple murder, and then our attackers will harvest our internal organs and other bio-matter. Well, the non-vampire crew members will be harvested. We ourselves don't actually appear in Shana's visions at all, it's unclear if we've been destroyed or are simply not around."

Carlisle leaned back and took a deep breath. "How certain are you about the reality of these visions?"

Aro covered his face with his hands, then clasped them under his chin. "I'm not certain. It's possible that Shana isn't seeing this reality at all but rather an alternative one, close enough to this world to trouble her. Or she could be completely accurate. Unless it happens, I simply won't know."

"What kind of creatures attacked the crew, did she see?"

"Humanoid, advanced, but misshapen, as though they had been put together out of other creatures."

"And they wanted organs and bio-matter, interesting. Some kind of medical piracy?"

"They had a sort of tricorder thing," Aro gestured to indicate a double-pronged hand-held device. "It removed the organs, like a transporter."

"Sounds like they're very careful, technology developed specifically for the task." Carlisle joined his fingertips contemplatively. "Their appearance…a disease of some kind?"

"Monsters," said Aro, looking down at his own smooth hands.

There was silence for a few minutes, during which Aro captured another piece of equipment from Carlisle's desk and turned it over and over with his fingers.

"At least a third of the crew have signed the consent form," Carlisle said at last.

"So many?" Aro looked up in surprise.

"We're 70,000 light years from home. Apparently the crew is more nervous about their mortality than we realized."

"Amazing," Aro breathed. "That was unexpected."

"B'Elanna was among the first."

"I don't doubt it. Are you still working on the venom interaction tests for her DNA?"

"My assistant is, it's going to take a while longer so I called in some help." Carlisle indicated a figure at the other end of Sick Bay, busy with a viewscreen and multiple compartmentalized trays.

Aro peered closer. "Is that...is that the Emergency Medical Hologram?"

"Yes, I partly activated him just to have someone to talk to while I'm here at night. But he's kind of...an acquired taste. Complains about everything."

Aro grinned, delighted. "I should go talk to him."

"No, absolutely not," said Carlisle, "Do not play 'tease the AI' with my hologram. Go and bother B'Elanna, it must be well past her bedtime by now."

* * *

Aro extracted an exhausted and very wired B'Elanna from Engineering and coaxed her into the nearest turbolift. B'Elanna groaned and slumped against the lift wall, pressing the heels of her hands against her eyes.

"I still have work to do, you know. Converting the auxiliary impulse reactor into a dilithium refinery takes a lot of planning."

"That may well be true but you're not a vampire yet. Sleep is still a necessity."

B'Elanna rolled her eyes, "Oh is that why you're dragging me off to my quarters? To sleep?"

Aro smiled widely, "I was going to apply some further gentle persuasion once we got there."

Unable to resist, B'Elanna shoved him against the opposite turbolift wall and kissed him hard. Aro returned the kiss with increasing desperation, dipping and tilting his head to get closer to her. Every touch helping to obscure the images engraved in his mind from Shana's vision, of the _Voyager_ crew in pieces, of B'Elanna…. He cut off the thought by pulling her closer, his fingers tangling in her short hair.

Thankfully no one was around when the turbolift doors slid open. Aro swung B'Elanna lightly into his arms and marched off down the corridor to her quarters.

"Thank you for not doing this in Engineering," she murmured against his throat.

Aro smiled wickedly, "I didn't think you'd want an audience."

He had just set her down inside her quarters and was taking her face in his hands again when something in her mind snagged on his, like a tiny burr, stuck on the fabric of his thoughts.

"What's wrong," B'Elanna asked, when he froze, looking suddenly abstracted.

"Shusssh." Aro cupped her face more securely, bowing his head and closing his eyes to concentrate better. After a few moments, he raised his head and squinted a little at her.

"What? Did you find my deepest, darkest secret in there finally?" she asked, amused.

"A heat signature."

"What?"

"You saw it but you didn't take note of it so you forgot about it immediately."

"Aro."

He shook his head. "Sorry. The rogue planetoid we're heading for…."

"Yes…" she prompted. "The one with the rich source of dilithium…. The reason I'm building a dilithium refinery…."

"Might be nothing."

"Aro!"

"The planetoid has a minute heat signature emanating from several meters below the surface."

"You're worried about something. What's going on? Aro?"

"I'm just going to check the sensor data with Demetri."

"I'll help, if it's to do with the planetoid..."

"No, no, no. You're going to sleep. You can help later when you're rested." He propelled B'Elanna onto the bed and kissed her forehead, pulling the sheets up over her.

"Aro…." B'Elanna growled menacingly.

"Sleep," whispered Aro persuasively in her ear. "Sleeeeeeep."

B'Elanna hit him with a pillow.

* * *

Janeway arrived on the bridge the next morning to find Aro standing in front of the main viewscreen with Felix and Demetri, watching the starfield streaming by. B'Elanna was at her bridge station, scowling at her control panel with an expression of dangerous annoyance.

"Aro, explain to me why you've altered _Voyager's_ course away from a rich source of dilithium," Janeway demanded, her metallic voice grating through the quiet bridge.

"Good morning, Captain," Aro said pleasantly. "Change of plans."

Janeway put her hands on her hips. "I'm waiting for an explanation, Commander."

"Ensign Kim," said Aro, "display the sensor readings."

"Aye, Commander."

The viewscreen changed to display a small planetoid.

"That's…." began Janeway, staring at the screen.

"The planetoid we were heading toward," said Aro.

"But we're too far away to get this clear an image."

"Ah, Demetri and Felix temporarily rerouted all non-essential power to the sensors last night and picked this up. We were also able to see some interesting details. There is an artificial heat signature below the surface of the planetoid. Additionally, the dilithium readings we've been getting appear to have been faked. We ran the data through several new filters, looking for inconsistencies and the data came back perfect, which is impossible, particularly through that much surface. The readings are far, far higher than they have any right to be."

"Someone created all this?"

"Oh, definitely. Ensign, show us the asteroid please."

A different view appeared on the screen, this time displaying a large asteroid located near the planetoid.

"Closer," said Aro.

The image magnified, until Janeway could see the faint outline of….

"Is that a ship?"

"According to the readings, yes. It's keeping close to the asteroid. The asteroid itself isn't real, it's an artificial construction of neutronium alloy, with a hollow interior."

Janeway sat down in the captain's chair. "You think this is some kind of trap?"

"A lure, any dilithium-powered starship passing through this region of space would be on the lookout for new supplies. A dilithium-rich planetoid off by itself? Who could resist? Someone hunts here in this sector of space, Captain. And we nearly walked into its territory."

"What kind of threat are we talking about here?"

Aro seated himself next to Janeway. "A sophisticated enemy, very advanced technology, and a need for secrecy. Beyond that, I don't know."

"But you suspect this has something to do with Lt. Stadi's nightmares," said Janeway, more a statement of fact than a question.

Aro shrugged, "Perhaps, perhaps not. Space piracy is not unknown in some areas. It could be nothing more than that."

"You don't believe that theory," Janeway gave him a humorless sideways smile. "Don't play games with me, Aro."

"Alarm is the province of prey," said Aro, "and I have no intention of becoming anything of the sort."


End file.
